No 'irresponsible' move to withdraw support to UPA : Left

New Delhi, July 9 (UNI) Rubbishing the argument that its crediblity was on the wane and the UPA partners like the DMK were asserting themselves as they did in the disinvestment issue, the Left parties today made it clear that they would not take the ''irresponsible step'' to withdraw support to the Manmohan Singh government.

The leaders of the CPI(M), CPI and RSP also emphasised that they would not change their political course or strategy and continue to press for implementation of the pro-poor agenda of the CMP.

Talking to UNI, the Left leaders said even Mr Karunanidhi had to change his stand, which he expressed in letters to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Sunday to consider giving shares to NLC employees on preferential basis. The resistance from his party and the united might of the workers' unions forced him to change his stand, they said.

The leaders also dismissed the perception that the Left position had been weakened, as the government chose to give in to the DMK threat and not support the Left parties, who had been agitating on the issue for the last two years.

''The government gets panicky when a partner in the UPA threatens to quit. This is exactly what has happened in Karunanidhi case. As far as the Left is concerned it will continue to adopt a holistic view of the performance of the Manmohan Singh government,'' CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan said.

The Left would re-think about the basis of its support not on a single issue, Mr Bardhan noted.

CPI National Secretary Shamim Faizi said they were willing to wait for even one month for the government's response to the Left's nine page letter on its two years of performance.

'' We want concrete answers on several points raised. We will consider some other issue in relation with the support to the government only after we receive the response,'' Mr Faizi said.

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